Mercer shook his head. “The EOD—”
Noelle’s hand lifted. “Doesn’t negotiate. Right. I’ve heard the spiel before.” She pulled in a deep breath. “But I’m not EOD, not any longer. I got fired, remember? Now I’m back to being plain old FBI.”
Mercer studied her, his eyes narrowed.
“I’m not letting a woman die on my watch.”
Thomas surged toward her. “He sets traps. You know his game. And you’re just going to walk out with him—”
She laughed. “No, we are.” Because if Patrick had said he’d only take her to find Paula, then she knew exactly what he intended to do. “Patrick Porter wants me dead. I was the first victim who got away. He wants me out there, where he’s in control. He wants to kill me because I’m the one who came back and destroyed everything for him.”
A muscle flexed in Thomas’s jaw. “I’m not letting that happen.”
Right. She nodded. “I knew I could count on you.”
His brows shot up.
“You come with us. You watch my back. I’ll watch yours. We’ll get Paula out—”
“How do you know the guy will even lead you to her?” Mercer demanded as his words cut through hers.
Noelle had to shrug. “He wants me to see what he can do. It’s all a game to him.”
But he wasn’t going to win the game. She was. No matter what she had to do, she’d beat him.
She headed toward the holding room. Mercer caught her arm. “He said that Paula Quill was working with the senator. That she helped gather intel and plan hits on the senator’s targets.”
Her eyes widened. Paula isn’t just an innocent victim. “And you think she was tied to the attack on the EOD.”
“She’s a person of interest.” His lips tightened into a thin line. “I need her brought in alive.”
Because Mercer still wanted to know why the EOD had been set up for the attack in the first place.
“You’ve both got current tracking devices?” Mercer asked, frowning at them.
At the EOD, all agents had small devices implanted just beneath the skin. If his agents were taken by the enemy, Mercer wanted to be able to make certain they were rescued, no matter where they went.
Thomas nodded. So did Noelle. She’d gotten her chip right after she’d started in her liaison role.
Mercer’s attention shifted to Thomas. “Never let her out of your sight.”
“Don’t worry—it won’t happen.” Thomas was adamant.
Mercer held his stare a little longer, then he stepped back. He waved toward the holding-room door. “Do what you need to do.”
Noelle straightened her shoulders and marched forward. She schooled her expression so no emotion showed on her face when she entered the holding room—and saw Patrick in his cell. He smirked at her. He was so confident of his control and power. She needed to destroy that confidence. She would.
Aaron stood just a few feet away, and he was glaring at their prisoner.
“Saw my pictures, did you?” Patrick asked her, voice nearly purring with satisfaction. “I was wondering how long it would take you to see them.”
“Why didn’t you tell us—immediately—that you’d taken her?” Noelle asked.
“I would’ve told you, but you’re the one who stopped talking to me.” His eyes sparked with fury. “So if she dies, you’re the one to blame for that.”
Thomas stalked to Noelle’s side. “You really think you’re just going to walk out of here with Agent Evers?”
“I think if I don’t go, you’ll never find Paula.”
His voice had softened a bit when he said the other woman’s name. Because she was his victim and he enjoyed his victims so much?
Enjoyed their suffering, their pain.
Noelle’s head inclined a bit as she studied him.
“Paula will vanish and her death will be on you two.” He shook his head. “And here I thought you were supposed to save people.”
“We did save Jenny,” Noelle pointed out to him because she wanted to see his response.
The fury flashed in his eyes again. “Jenny,” he bit out the name, “wasn’t worth my time. She wasn’t a challenge. She wasn’t anything to me. Just bait, to lure you out.”
“Isn’t that what Paula is, too?” Thomas wanted to know. “Bait. You stick her in the middle of nowhere, and you expect us to just follow your lead...right into whatever hell you’ve got waiting for us?”
Patrick laughed. “You have to do it! Because if you don’t, you both know she’s dead.” He pointed toward Noelle. “She can’t live with a death on her. You...” He waved dismissively toward Thomas. “You don’t care. People don’t matter to you.”
Yes, they did. He didn’t know Thomas at all.
Patrick’s eyes were on Noelle. “But she won’t let an innocent die. She can’t. Seeing Paula tied up like that, it was like seeing yourself, wasn’t it?”
She didn’t let any emotion break through. “You’re a control freak, a man who thinks that he’s the strongest and the toughest in any room that he enters. But you weren’t always that way. In fact, you first killed Emma Jane because you felt weak.” She was about to show him just how much she knew. “You got a rush from her death, one unlike anything you’d ever felt before.”
He was still smirking at her. That smirk is going to vanish.
“I don’t think you meant to hunt her. I think Emma Jane got away from you. She ran. You had to chase her. That’s when you began to like the hunt so much.”
His smirk slipped.
“You tried to recreate that rush by taking girls who reminded you of Emma Jane, but that just didn’t work.” She shook her head. “Then, of course, you found out your partner had been killed. That made you feel lost, isolated—and powerless. You hate to feel like you lack power—”
“Because I don’t! I never lack power!”
“Lucky for you, though, Duncan entered the picture then. He used you, but he also refocused you. The rush came back because your prey was more challenging, and you continued this way...for a while.”
His breath heaved out. “You think you’re so smart—”
“It was only a matter of time until you killed him. You couldn’t keep following his orders forever, even if you enjoyed the work. Following his orders meant he held power, not you. So when he pushed too far, when he told you to kill me and Agent Anthony his way, you snapped.”